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My love!
I don’t
know
Whether
I will see you
again
My lover
My husband
My friend
You are
going to the front
For me
For our
life
For our
memories
For our freedom
For us
I may not see you again
I may not feel you again
a pain is going through
my heart but,
it will not break it
because I am
thinking of you
******************************
My Love!
I don’t know
Whether
I will see you
again
My lover
My wife
My friend
I am going
to the front
For you
For our
life
For our
memories
For our freedom
For us
I may not see you again
I may not feel you again
a bullet may go through
my heart but,
it will not break it
because I am
thinking of you
---Ajith Dharma -Written for this Ukranian couple and all the couples seperated in this war
When you look at the Russian and Ukranina history, one thing is clear. Both nations were born and bread by their Kievan mother. Both nations originated from Kiev.
2000 BC –
Nomadic Tribes (kurgans) – Called the Scytheans were in Russia , Bronze Age Cultures , They
were overrun by nomadic tribes
0650 AD -
Slavs (many tribes)
0800 AD
Vikings from Scandinavia (varangians) rowed up to Russia via Rivers Don, Dnieper
and Volga
0862 AD –
East Slavs selected Varangian Chief Rurik to be their Prince and he Created a
kingdom with the capital city as Novogorod
, Rurikids ruled Russia for 700 years, his people called themselves Rus and
named the land after them.
Important
part – Rurik’s Successor Oleg (Prince Oleg – 879-912) captured the Kiev making
it the capital of the state called Kievan Rus.
0988 AD - Vladimir
the Great (980-1015) converted to Orthodox Christianity (Still Kiev is the
capital) (both Ukraine and Russia adopted Christianity)
1040 AD –
Yaroslav the Wise (1019 – 1054) -Golden age of Kievan Rus. He conquered new
lands. He was credited for codifying the laws.
One of the powerful states of Europe.
1054 AD –
kievan Rus disintegrated to princedoms (brothers fought among themselves)
1223 AD The
Mongolian Attack under Genghis Khan, Defeated Kievan Rus kingdoms, retuned back
1237 AD-
Mongol Army led by batu Khan overran the Kievan Rus and all the land (Cities of
Vladimir, Rostov, Kyazan, Kiev)- Novogorod submitted to Mongols so spared
1242 AD –
Alxander Nevsky from Novogorod defeated Teutonic Knights
1253 AD –
Mongol King (Tatars) – The Golden Hord ruled Kievan Rus and all the land (Under
the “Tatar yoke”)
1283 AD –
Nevsky’s son Daniel founded the Grand Principality of Moscow
1313 AD –
Tatars converted to Islam under Uzbek Khan
1362 AD – Grand
Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Tatars and conquered Kiev as well.
1380 AD At
Kulikovo battle s Grand Prince of Moscow Dmitri Donskoi also defeated the Tatars
1453 AD
Tatar empire (Golden Hord disintegrated) , Constantinople (Byzntine empire)
fell to Turkish Ottoman Empire
1478 AD –
Grand Prince of Moscow annexed Novogorod – Created first Russian State, At 1480
AD Ivan II defeated Tatars once for all.
1547 –
First tsar of Russia – Ivan Iv (Ivan the terrible) 1533-1584 . He was defeated
by Polish-Lithuanian Empire and Kiev was under the Commonwealth. (Livonian War)
Important-
1572 AD – Raiders from Crimean Khanate (Muslim) raided Moscow. But Russians defeated them the following
year. Cossacks were living in steppes.
1582AD –
Cossack led Russians defeated Tatars in Siberia
1598- Death
of Feodorov 1, end of Rurik Dynasty, Boris Godunov Became Tsar
1608 – 1613
AD- No ruler and Russia was in state of anarchy – Polish occupied Moscow,
Swedish- Novogorod , Prince Pozharsky
and Kuzma threw out Polish in 4th of November 1612 – Russian unity
Day
1613 –
Mikhail Romonov – First Tsar Romonov came to the throne. His son Tsar Alexei implemented
a new legal code
1649 -
Russian peasants (80% of them) became serfs (like slaves – No freedom to travel
or choose a master, They were objects belongs to landowners and lords)
1654
– Important – Ukrainian Zaporizhian Cossacks rebelled against Polish Lithuanian
commonwealth and accepted Russian tsar Alexei as their overlord and asked for
military support.
1667
– Russia fought under Tsar Alexi with Polish Lithuanian commonwealth for 13
years. Russia won and annexed Smolensk and Eastern Ukraine. (Now Donbas)
1686 –
Russia joined Holy War against Ottoman Empire (With England and France)
1688 –
Under Queen Sofia – Russia Signed the first treaty with China
1689 – Peter
the I, became the ruler
1700
– War against Tukey was won at sea., Crimea became Russian Enclave and sea port
in black sea and Azov Sea (They had only Archangelsk) –by the treaty of Constantinople.
1712-
Russia fought together with Poland, Lithuania and Denmark – against dominant
power at the time Sweden. (Battle of Poltava), St Petersburg created.
1721- great
Northern war ended with Sweden’s defeat. Russia gained Baltic states at Sweden’s
expense. Peter the First became emperor and
Peter the Great.
1759 –
Russia’s Queen Elizabeth’s army defeated Prussian King Fredrick the Great’s army
1762 – Peter
the Third's wife, A German Princess Catherine became the Empress of Russia -
Catherine II – Russia defeated Ottoman empire (1768-74), Polish Lithuanian
commonwealth collapsed and Russia took the control of Poland until 1918.
1809 – Tsar
alexander 1 invaded Sweden and Finland then Finland came under Russia as an
Autonomous Grand Duchy
1812 – Napoleon
lost to Russia, then together with Britain and Prussia went up to Paris. Alexander
became King of Poland
1815 –
Russia invaded and occupied Georgia, Chechenia, Dagestan, Armenia, Azerbaijan
1828 Persia
(now Iran) lost the war with Russia and lost lot of territory to Russia. Russia
liberated Greece from Ottomans.
1854 –
Russia defeated Turks in Black Sea, Britain and France declared war against
Russia. (Crimean War) – Russia was
halted from further expansion after losing the port of Sevastopol.
1861 –
Abolition of Serfdom (Slavery)
1865-
Russia acquired new territory in central Asia – Tajikistan, Kirgizstan, Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan. Russia sold Alaska to America (1867)
1877 – Russia
together with Bulgaria Faught with Turks again. But under international pressure gave independence
to many countries including Rumania, Bulgaria and Montenegro.
1917 - Ukraine parted from Russian Empire in 1917 and until 1918 was semi-independent under German control. When Keiser fell in 1918 Ukraine became independent, but the power was coming from one rule to another. Eventially independent Ukraine was conquered by bolsheviks and that's how it became a part of the SU. (Maksim Kuzmin)
1917 – With
the first world war defeats, February revolution brought end to Tsar’s rule. Russia was now a republic. In October Bolsheviks
took power under Vladimir Lenin after the coup master minded by Leon Trotsky. Under Bolsheviks 15 Soviet republics were created. Ukrainian Soviet Socialist republic was created
with its capital as Kiev. Ukraine
became a country and republic within the Soviet Union.
1954 – 19th of February – Under the Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev Presidium of the Supreme Soviet passed a decree transferring the Crimean oblast from Russian Soviet socialist federation to Ukrainian soviet socialist republic.
2014
(23-24 February) – Under the Tsar Putin 1 (or president Putin) Russian Federation
annexed Crimean Peninsula from the Independent Ukraine.
2022 (23-24 February) - Under the directive of Tsar Putin 1 , Russia recognized independence of two republics in Eastern Ukraine , which were under the Russian Empire in 1667 very first time.
- Ajith Dharmakeerthi
Based on this video:
One of the root causes of the current Ukrainian crisis lies mainly with Josef Stalin and his forced creation of collective farms. Millions of Ukrainians died. No successive soviet governments or Russian leaders apologized for it. Instead of the rhetoric President Putin should apologize for it and see the results.
In spite of "holodomor" more than
4.5 million Ukrainians joined the red army to fight Nazis. Quarter million Ukrainians
(including Jewish Ukrainians) fought as partisans against the invading Nazi
army. Only small number of Ukrainians fought alongside the Nazis.
Please click here.
There are so many Russians and Eastern Europeans living in the Walthamstow area
that they have their own shops. It's good for me because I like to eat pelmeni,
Chebureki (that's Georgian by the way) , beef stroganoff and all
that. In fact, we went last Saturday to Walthamstow market and had some food
from one of the Lithuanian cafés there.
I have a lot of friends from former the Soviet bloc countries. Russians, Ukrainians,
Georgians, Polish, Romanians and many others. Which side am I on this worrying
discussion about a war in Europe? I really can't take a side. I may antagonise
someone somewhere. But my problem is I can't really keep quiet either.
As we can see clearly, western powers armed the Ukrainian army during the
covid period. It is obvious. Ukranian army was awfully inadequate with training
and weapons when the country was divided and the Donbass region claimed
independence from Ukraine. Now the situation has changed, and the much improved Ukrainian
army is ready to take on the separatists. Quite rightly so. After all it is their
country, and they have every right to unite it.
But is it that simple? Russia vehemently opposes to Ukraine joining the
NATO. And it is dangerous to them. Remember, it was the Western powers and NATO
who broke the promise not to expand the NATO eastwards when Soviet Union
collapsed. They cheated on Gorbachev and Yeltsin. But Putin was in for a different
game. Don't forget that NATO immediately went into Balkan republics and then tried
to go to Georgia too. The result was Georgia being broken into two pieces. I
am not saying what Russia did was correct. I am just saying NATO expanding eastwards
did not bring desired results. Instead, it created more chaos.
What about Crimea? I have a different opinion here. We know that Crimea
belonged to the Russian empire for about 300 years. They took Crimea from the Turkish
Ottoman empire around 1774. Before that it was occupied by Mongols. Before that it belonged to Kievan Russ and even before that to the Roman empire. Then in 1921 it
became the Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic. Afterwards it became just a
province under the Russian Soviet Republic. Do you remember Nikita Kruchsev, Former
Soviet president who nearly started a war with the USA because of Cuba? Krushev,
who worked more time in Ukraine in his early years, somewhat illegally gave the
province to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist republic, up until a couple of years ago Russia
annexed it again, under President Putin's command.
I am really not against that, perhaps because the majority of Russians living
there have allegiance to Russia anyway. In recent history it was under Russia
as well.
But Russia or Putin should not mess with the Donbass region. If Ukrainians want
to take it back by defeating separatists, that's their right. President Putin
should not mess with that. At the same time, NATO should stop here. They should
not encircle Russia with Ukraine. Who likes their enemy in their backyard? Certainly,
NATO is behaving more like an enemy rather than a friend or partner. Russia can
easily be a partner if old warmonger generals of NATO take a step back.
They don't. Hence the problem. Both Putin and NATO generals do not want to
give an inch. Now are we facing a long and painful war in Europe? Perhaps.
Then there is this big elephant in the room. Russian gas.
- Ajith Dharmakeerthi
A new study confirms that as atoms are chilled and squeezed to extremes, their ability to scatter light is suppressed.
An atom’s electrons are arranged in energy shells. Like concertgoers in an arena, each electron occupies a single chair and cannot drop to a lower tier if all its chairs are occupied. This fundamental property of atomic physics is known as the Pauli exclusion principle, and it explains the shell structure of atoms, the diversity of the periodic table of elements, and the stability of the material universe.
Now, MIT physicists have observed the Pauli exclusion principle, or Pauli blocking, in a completely new way: They’ve found that the effect can suppress how a cloud of atoms scatters light.
Normally, when photons of light penetrate a cloud of atoms, the photons and atoms can ping off each other like billiard balls, scattering light in every direction to radiate light, and thus make the cloud visible. However, the MIT team observed that when atoms are supercooled and ultrasqueezed, the Pauli effect kicks in and the particles effectively have less room to scatter light. The photons instead stream through, without being scattered.
An evening
to remember
It was an
evening to remember for a long time. It also showed what’s the friendships are
about. I am going to write a long blogpost but I cannot help but write this for
now. It was the evening to introduce my
book that published in September 2019. After this long Covid pandemic time, only yesterday I could introduce the book to
London.
There were some problems I could not foresee. Even
I wondered that 13thof November may be such a bad day as they say superstitiously.
It changed however; things start moving. First of all, my long time Saroj (Who
studied in Kiev) came to conduct the event as promised bringing with him Fish
curry prepared by Gayani and Sumudu. They could not come due to family
emergency in Sri Lanka. But they made
sure that I received the curry. Nandana and Yamuna kindly gave him a lift as
his car was not available. Yamuna, made sure the hall is warmed and lighting arrangements
work with Rohitha who studied also in Kiev those days. Ines, my kind-hearted wife
made all the food arrangements with the help from Sheela, who brought a
parrippu (that’s dhal in Sinhalese) all the way from West London. To tell the truth without Ines’s help all this
I could not have done all this. Kumara who
studied in Kiev came with Rohitha, Dhammika and Bandula. It may seem like a “Kiev Affair” with their
contribution but I assure this is a Moscow Affair. Kumara supported the laptop
operations with the projector and kindly videoed the event.
Everyone
pulled their own chairs leaving me the hardest bits. To run the vent. And my friends
came from places afar. Athula , who studied in Moscow friendship university
came all the way from Wolverhampton with a bottle of Champagne (French one, not
the Soviet Champagne, but sweet taste was there) He contributed to the event with
his readings from the pages of the book and his valuable memories of those
times. Subodha came to participate the event from Brentwood, Essex. Asha S who studied in Moscow State University,
Vipuli, a product of Peradeniya, my famous blogger friend Marcus Priyantha read
pages form the book and shared their thoughts. Marcus’s speech was particularly
interesting and he had sharp insight into the affairs of the then Soviet Union
and Russia. Vijitha Gunaratna, the famous dramatist joined the discussion from Sweden
with his valuable input.
Ayumini and
Nissanka Wikramaratne, a father and daughter duo contributed with number of amazing
songs. I have to mention Ayumini’s mother Indu was helping to prepare the music
and event last few weeks. Delani made a nice Biryani for all of us, although
she could not come, Asha made the raita for it, Ines
made a really tasty salad to complement it. Thanks to all of you, the evening was
a success. Vajira and Krishanthi gave us the containers to keep food warm.
All in all,
the evening well with Champagne and smooth Beluga Vodka to finish the event as the
tradition. Thank you to my friend from Moscow Leonid Ponkratenko for the Vodka.
I should mention Bandula’s real Havana cigars
he brought all the way from Cuba. We made good use of them for the after party
at my house. Some of us met at our house
for the after party and you can see that from the picture.
Thank you all for attending and also from those who congratulated, contributed and gave the encouragement. I felt I really have friends and family. What more Do you want. What more Do I need.
p.s - When Athul was talking he reminded me when we first met. Our mutual friend Sudath was the Sports Secretary when I was the general Secretary of the student union of state univercities. One of the first things we organised was a cricket match with Lumumba University. We lost. But Athula forgot one crucial detal. We, state univercities team lost every single cricket match we played after that.
Ajith
A female teacher went for a coffee latte. Barista told her "Sorry
madam, we don't have coffee latte. I can give you a coffee without milk. We
don't have milk powder”
But teacher was
adamant she wants coffee with powder milk.
"I will bring it
to you. Where I can buy it" She asked the barista.
"The shop across
the road sells milk powder. But they don't have it." Barista replied.
"I am a teacher.
I am so tired teaching online since the morning. Can you please give me a
coffee without milk then? Anyway, where I can buy a gas cylinder." teacher
asked.
"The shop next
to the shop selling milk powder sells gas cylinders. But they don't sell gas to
the teachers. " Barista says.
"Why is that?
Isn't it illegal!" Angry teacher asked.
"Not at all
madam, they don't have gas." barista laughed.
When the teacher
finished her coffee, another teacher called Mr A. Lover took her to a "One
night stand in Australia" hotel.
The receptionist at
the hotel told them there are no rooms because the hotel is surrounded by the
ministerial security division.
"Why on earth is
that" They both screamed together.
"Mr Raheliya
Kembukwella is practising polygamy" Receptionist replied.
When the T-
shirts clad CID officials heard that, they immediately arrested the
receptionist and bundled her to an official three wheeler to take her to the
police station, for the grave crime of disclosing
a government secret.
There is a
new TV series in “All 4” with glamorous Russian actresses and Russian
dialog with English subtitles. It is candidly showing off Moscow's social
elite. The theme did not change from Soviet days that much except that oligarchs now have more
money and new and exclusive homes. At that time Communist party high officials
lived with wife in the large flat and lovers in numerous small flats
around the suburbs in Moscow. They took their lovers to dachas at the weekend
(summer house). Now it’s just changed to large palace like houses owned
by nouveau riche oligarchs in subburbs of Moscow and their lovers in Moscow posh flats. Ah
yes, rich have a way of dealing with police too. They can get away with murder even.
The name is actually misleading. Russian name for the series is
called sadershanka (содершанка ) , which means the keeper.
German series calls it "Russian Affairs".
Mistresses wants only the money and easy comfortable life in Moscow that
their rich lovers pay generously. And the rich lover will keep their marriage
lives intact. This supposed to be a crime thriller by the way.
Director, the script writer and all the cast are Russian and it was filmed
in Russia. Why the Russian president Putin allowed such a film series to air in the
first place? Perhaps he had enough of the antiques of some oligarchs
and "clearing out” operation is on the card? The series depicting the
decadent nature of the advanced capitalism to allow president to manoeuvre freely?
waring: You cannot watch it with the family as one can confuse it with an erotic movie.
gave me a father's day gift with flowers
with hugging and kissing
they are making a cake with my wife
she bought me flowers and Champagne
she is doing schichtkraut for lunch
It's a German affair
This father's day
I remember my poor father
There were no father's day
I have no idea
how he raised us
on his meagre allowance
When we passed exams,
doing well at school, and out
That's his father's day
he left us early, at 62
My Mother was younger
than what I am now
I can't imagine, because
I think I am still young
at least at heart at 56
I can't imagine how lonely for her
how sad its for her
I can promise you,
dear father
We will look after
Love of your life
For the rest of our lives
The least we can do
For all you did for us
your four children
only treasure you left
